Zimbabwe: Polad Pushes for Justice Extended to Army, Police Brutality Victims

President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Political Actors Dialogue (Polad) is working on a system that would ensure victims of police and army brutality get the necessary recourse to the law.

This was revealed to Kwekwe journalists recently by Polad chairperson on Economic Committee Trust Chikohora.

Zimbabwe’s uniformed forces members have been accused in many instances of visiting brutalities on citizens without the victims having any recourse to the law.

Said Chikohora, “We have looked at Section 210 of the constitution for mechanisms to be put in place, so that we will be able to raise issues should there be a situation where they have not been treated fairly by the uniformed forces.”

Polad, said Chikohora, is pushing for a commission to deal with army and police brutality.

“We are pushing for a commission to deal with issues of breaches security services sector, so that people will have somewhere to go and have their issues followed up where the security services sector has not treated them well,” said Chikohora.

He admitted issues of army and police brutality have been the bone of contention for long in the country.

Since Mnangagwa’s ushering in as President 2017, the country has seen two fierce episodes of military brutality, first with the 2018 gunning down of six civilians during protests ignited by disputed elections then, as well as the brutal reaction to anti-government protests of January 2019.

Chikohora said Polad was also looking into issues of political reforms.

“We are looking at political reforms. Recently, we were dialoguing with civil society such as ZESN, ERC and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights where we were discussing the draft Bill to make changes to the Electoral Act,” he said.

Chikohora said the country has been having disputed elections, “so there is need for reforms.”

“You change the Electoral Act so that it governs the way elections are being run, so that we end up with an election which is beyond reproach,” he said.

Main opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa is still disputing the 2018 election results citing poll manipulation by the incumbent.

Source:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *